Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st, 1685 in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, and pasted away on July 28th, 1750. Bach was a famous German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred music and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, Bach's works include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, ''the Mass in B minor, the ''St. Matthew Passion, ''the St. John Passion, the ''Magnificat, ''the ''Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, ''the ''English and French Suites, ''the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the ''Cello Suites, ''more than 200 surviving cantatas, and a similar number of organ works, including the famous ''Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, ''and the ''Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, ''and ''Organ Mass. 'Childhood' Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the children of Europe's great musical families. He was the child of Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt and Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians. His father taught him the violin and the harpsichord. Bach's great-grandfather, Johannes Bach (1580-1620) was a carpetwaever who also performed at different festivals. Most of Johannes' sons and grandsons also became musicians, including, Johannes's grandson, Johann Ambrosia Bach, Johann Sebastian's father. Bach was proud of his family's musical achievements; he drafted a genealogy around 1735, titled "Origin of the musical Bach family". Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father followed her footsteps and eight months later he also passed away. Bach, who was 10 at the time, moved in with his older brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671-1721), the organist at Michaeliskirche, in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. There he studied, performed, and copied music by candlelight The German composer's professional life is generally separated into three periods. As court organist, and later Concertmaster, in Weimar from 1708 to 1717, Bach concentrated on fugues and preludes. Much of Bach's organ music, including the Tocacata and Fugue in D minor, came directly from this time period. In 1717, he became chief musician for Prince Leopold in Cothen (Bach was briefly incarcerated by the duke of Weimar for accepting the job of chief musician). Here he focused on larger instrumental projects, for example, the Brandenburg Concertos and the first volume of The Well Tempered Clavier. He then became engrossed in religious vocal music after he became the organist and music director of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germnay. He held the Leipzig position for many years until his death. While Bach worked almost exclusively within the fairly rigid compositional framework of the Baroque style, his works brought the form to culmination. No other composer of his time worked with the depth or complexity of Johann Sebastian Bach. To illustrate the point: three years before his death, Bach traveled to Prussia at the behest of King Frederick. While there, Bach improvised a six-part fugue on a theme supplied to him by the king. Douglas Hofstadter, in his book, Godel, Escher, Bach, likens this feat to playing 60 simultaneous games of chess while blindfolded...and winning, them all. ''' '''Ironically, Bach was known by his contempories than as a composer, but that all changed in 1929, when Felix Mendelssohn dusted off The Passion According to St. Matthew for a 100th anniversary performance; Bach's pieces receive widespread acclaim all to the thanks of Mendelssohn. Today, of course, he is considered a musical master. 'Death' By 1740 Bach had lost a substantial part of his vision. (His sight had been weak since youth. Bach when he had stayed with his broher who was also a musician, his brother taught him more music. Bach mastered thous music pieces with the greatest ease. Bach asked his brother if he could have more music to study but his brother said he was to young and had to practice more before he was ready. Bach, by moonlight, wrote every single piece down on parchement. For many night he would do this, causing his early eyestrain). The problem-apparently cataracts-continued to worsen throughout the years until the composer finally conceded to two painful, unanesthetized operations on his eyes. They left him completely blind. he spent his last few months in a dark room dictating music to his son-in-law and his wife, Anna Magdalene Wulken, who oftn wrote out parts for his compositions. Bach died July 28, 1750 at the age of 65, 10 days after suffering a stroke. Many thanks to Mendelssohn for rediscovering the beautiful music of Bach. Without his find, we would never have known about him. One of the greatest composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, will forever be remembered in the hearts and minds of all to come. If only Bach was alive now, what a different world this would be. Category:Famous Composers Category:1685 Category:1750 Category:German Category:Organist Category:The Three B's